In January I began a small daily practice: "Daily Measures." The roots of the idea came from my "Story Strips/Lines," which you may remember encountering here once in a while. For this new practice, I am choosing a "line" of paper (1x10cm) that reflects some part of the day...a moment, an event, a theme, an emotion, the weather, a project I'm working on——it can be anything, really. Most of the strips have been found in the basket of paper trimmings that I've been using for paper-weaving, many of which are left over from past projects; others are taken from test prints, or packaging I love/save.
The lines of paper are each woven into an accordion book that I have prepared at the beginning of the month. These accordions are made of lovely Fabriano Artistico, a paper with a hint of warmth, a touch of texture & deckles along the edges. I create slits through which I weave the strips; as the pages fill up, the lines create visual text blocks. The images shown here are for January, which is titled "Possibility." I began the month with mainly white strips, which symbolized the fresh start to the year...the blank page, a blank canvas, new lists.
Ultimately, nine centimeters of each line remain visible, and the "tails" can be seen from behind. At some point I might affix them with a stitch or adhesive. And I may also bind the accordions——to each other, as well linking the pages within each one, so that the effect is more like a traditional binding. The main reason I chose the accordion structure is so that I could conceal the woven ends of the strips, but I'm not sure that I want such an unwieldy accordion at the end of the year...
There are also slits for a "footer" at the bottom of each page. For January's I typed the small Roman numeral "i" but I'm hoping to come up with an alternative (one benefit to their not being permanently fixed yet); it's too much like page numbering, which of course would actually be consecutive numbers. I may also end up indenting/shortening the lines I use for Mondays, to distinguish the weeks from one another——creating paragraphs of sorts. In any case, I'm enjoying the process of experimenting; for a handful of days I have typed words on to the strips, and a couple of times I have tried layering multiple strips. Who know where I will end up by the end of the year!
So, February's accordion is starting to fill up nicely now...I will take a few photos to post here once the month has ended. (How is it possible that 2016 is already moving along so quickly?) Happy new moon + Year of the Monkey to all of you!
